Search results

The present study aims to apply the construct of microaggressions to organizational contexts by examining perceptions of discrimination in ambiguous interactions between White supervisors and Black subordinates and their impact on work outcomes under varying conditions of leader fairness.

US participants (N=387) responded to scenarios describing supervisor‐subordinate interactions involving subtle to blatant discrimination, after being told either that the supervisor had a history of fair, equitable treatment of subordinates or that the supervisor had a history of unfairness and inequity.

Leader equity impacted discrimination perceptions, affording leaders greater benefit of the doubt in ambiguous interracial interactions. For all levels of microaggression severity, microaggressions were perceived less when the supervisor had a reputation for equity and fairness; expected work outcomes were also better when the supervisor had a reputation for equity and fairness at all levels of microaggression severity.

As blatant discrimination grows more and more unacceptable, examining the subtle and sometimes unintended aspects of workplace discrimination is increasingly important. The authors’ results suggest that a leader's reputation for equity and fairness may mitigate the effects of racial slights.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the impact of leader equity on microaggressions and the first to empirically explore the impact of microaggressions on work outcomes. Their results suggest the importance of establishing leader reputations of fairness and training staff to recognize even subtle forms of discrimination and exclusion.

The concept of Takaful has a long history. It is linked with the era of Prophet Muhammad 1,400 years ago. The globalization and development of socio-economic systems have made business activities more complex in response to emerging human needs and requirements. Similarly, Takaful insurance has fully commercialized and become an important indicator of the international financial market. The purpose of this study is to understand the Takaful mechanism and progression of its procedures to date since its inception.

This study seeks to examine the origin, evolution and historical developments of Takaful mechanism, operations, models and governing framework with extant literature review from previous studies and current practices.

The modern Takaful insurance first began in Sudan back in 1979. The Takaful operations must abide by the Sharia laws and work under the supervision of the Sharia Supervisory Board. Since its evolution, Sharia scholars have introduced various Takaful models that are going to be explained in this study. Moreover, several Islamic organizations, including the “Islamic Financial Services Board” and the “Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions,” have provided guidelines and supervision to develop and strengthen the Takaful industry further. The study acknowledges Takaful as a growing insurance industry with huge potential and promising future in both Pakistan and the international market.

During the analysis, various deficiencies and loopholes were identified, which are responsible for the unmatched growth of conventional insurance. They can be eliminated with the joint efforts of industrial players, Sharia scholars and Takaful insurance companies. Hence, Islamic scholars and academic researchers are encouraged to develop and modify the current practices of Takaful mechanism according to current market demands and consumer approach. The research efforts will help Takaful operators to develop more innovative Takaful products adhering Sharia compliance. Consequently, it will help to access more consumer market and further enhances the Takaful growth.

This study is an effort to provide a basic understanding of the mechanism of Takaful models. The study helps to comprehend how Takaful models have evolved and been modified over the course of time. Moreover, it provides a base for further development and improvement in current practices of Takaful models, which will result in increased progress for the Takaful industry.

This study aims to investigate the factors affecting micro, small and medium entrepreneurs’ (MSMEs) behavioural intention to participate in takaful schemes in Sri Lanka.

This research adopted a quantitative approach using primary data from a questionnaire. Out of 470 questionnaires, 432 were collected (91.91%) from MSMEs in Kalmunai business region in Sri Lanka. The data obtained were analysed using partial least square-structural equation modelling.

This study revealed that the extension model of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) can be effectively applied to behavioural intentions towards a takaful scheme by MSMEs. Out of eight hypotheses, seven were significant, including: attitude towards behavioural intention; subjective norm; perceived behavioural control; knowledge; religiosity; income; trust in takaful as a significant influence. However, awareness of intention was not found to be significant.

This study suggests advantages for takaful providers in Sri Lanka, especially marketing departments, for enhancing sale of products, refurbishing marketing strategies and understanding the purchasing motivation of business entrepreneurs. This study guides takaful companies as to where they should concentrate to enhance market penetration.

Previous studies have concentrated on only three factors which comprise TPB. This paper’s main contribution is on the uniqueness of the Muslim minority context in a pluralistic context, providing a marketing model for takaful operators based on the different relevant dimensions.

This study aims to find out the problems of family Takaful (Islamic Life Insurance) operations in Bangladesh and proposes strategies to overcome the problems.

Qualitative data were collected through interviews with 32 respondents from two family Takaful operators in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The study finds a number of problems of family Takaful which relate to the government, Takaful company and the Shariah board. Lack of governing guidelines for Takaful companies in Bangladesh is causing numerous operational problems of family Takaful. To overcome these obstacles, the government should propose separate Act for Takaful. This requires support from the stakeholders along with Islamic scholars in the country.

It is anticipated that the findings and suggestions of the study will assist the policymakers in improving the situation of family Takaful companies particularly in Bangladesh.

If the proposed suggestions are implemented in Takaful companies, the problems facing Takaful will likely be solved and more people will take part in Takaful. This would contribute to developing the country economically, raise Islamic values and foster peace and harmony in the society.

Mainly, this study is based on the primary research that has been conducted in family Takaful companies in Bangladesh.

This paper aims to investigate the influence of the determinants (pricing, type of structure, Shariah auditing, Shariah risk and Shariah documentation) and the sukuk legitimacy among Islamic financial institutions using a qualitative approach. The paper further explained the significance of the determinants on legitimacy, evaluated the relationship between sukuk characteristics and sukuk legitimacy and examined the moderating effect of Shariah Supervisory Board (SSB) on the relationship.

The study used a purposive sampling technique to select the target respondents required for the survey (semi-structured interview). This technique is applied by selecting members of SSBs among Islamic financial institutions. A total number of ten members are selected as the sample size for the study based on their experience and basic knowledge of Fiqh Al-Mua’malat and its application in Islamic financial institutions.

The findings revealed that the determinants have a significant impact on the sukuk legitimacy, meaning that there is a positive and significant relationship between the determinants and the sukuk legitimacy. In addition, this study indicates the empirical evidence of the moderating effect of SSB on the relationship between the determinants and the sukuk legitimacy.

This study has added to the literature by examining the determinants of sukuk legitimacy while evaluating the moderating effect of SSB on the relationship. Besides, this might add benefits to the numerous Islamic financial institutions relating to the amendment of its regulatory frameworks with the view to pushing the sukuk market investors to move toward asset-backed structure. In addition, the SSB in central banks must also focus its attention regarding the sukuk legitimacy and its application among the various Islamic financial institutions.

This study has added a new discussion to the body of knowledge, i.e. examining the sukuk legitimacy and its relationship with sukuk determinants; hence, an approach that is not widely discussed in the previous studies. Furthermore, conducting such research in the field of Islamic finance provides novelty in the literature among both emerging and developed economies including Malaysia. This is because to the best knowledge of the researchers, there was no empirical study (within the literature) that combined these variables and evaluated their empirical significance. Accordingly, this would enlighten the Islamic Ummah and propel the society’s intensity toward contributing to knowledge and might further provide clarification on the determinants and the sukuk legitimacy to prospective scholars, precisely on the moderating effect of SSB on the relationship between determinants and legitimacy of sukuk.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the awareness of non-Muslims coming from a non-Muslim-majority country regarding Islamic financial services, in particular, the takaful products.

This paper uses structured questionnaires to acquire and understand South Korean citizens’ perceptions of Islamic financial services (primarily takaful) to reinforce the scant previous literature in this area of research. The questionnaires are developed and adapted based on a previous study by Htay and Salman (2013). The sample consisted of 121 Korean people who were living in Ampang, a popular suburb for South Koreans in Kuala Lumpur.

The findings indicate that even South Korean citizens who have dwelled in Malaysia for a significant amount of time had little awareness of Islamic financial services. Upon personal explanation about the product, however, they showed a significant interest to get to know about takaful and a willingness to subscribe to it in the near future.

Respondents are limited to only South Koreans who are residing in Malaysia.

Understanding the level of awareness about Islamic financial services among non-Muslims residing in Muslim-majority country.

There is ample scope to penetrate the non-Muslim market for Islamic financial products.

There is a growing concern over the lack of research in the area of perceptions of Islamic financial services among non-Muslims from non-Muslim-majority countries. The lack of study in this area of research has often been overshadowed by research studies on perceptions of Islamic financial services among non-Muslim residents in Muslim-majority countries, which may have led to a dearth of proper strategies in the Islamic financial industry to penetrate non-Muslim-majority markets.

This paper aims to explore the determinants of intention to use Islamic banking and compare the consumer behavior of users and non-users of Islamic banking. This study incorporates the theory of planned behavior in Islamic banking perspective with an additional construct from technology acceptance model.

The research is quantitative in nature, and survey questionnaire was used to get data from four cities of Pakistan. The study manages to get 300 questionnaires from which only 264 were usable for analysis. The structural equation modeling was used for testing the hypotheses.

The result shows that perceived behavior control and perceived usefulness are the most significant predictors of intention to use of Islamic banking among users and non-users. Attitude turns out to be a non-significant factor for non-users of Islamic banking. Subjective norm is also found to be non-significant with intention to use Islamic banking in both groups.

This study has theoretical as well as practical significance in the subject of consumer behavior in Islamic banking. Theoretically, it attempts to fill the gap caused by the scarcity of research in exploring the consumer behavior towards Islamic banking in Pakistan. This study provides insights into the consumer behavior of users and non-users of Islamic banking and thus presents a comparison. Practically, this study provides guidelines for Islamic banks in introduction, propagation and promotion of Islamic banking products and services to establish Islamic banking as a social norm.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that influence the intention to choose family takaful in Pakistan through using theory of reasoned action (TRA) model. While family takaful is not a new financial solution in the market, the main factors that motivate customers to purchase family takaful remain unexplored. To fill this gap, this paper investigated the impact of attitude (ATT), subjective norm (SBN) with the addition of Halal certification (HCT) to predict the behavioral intention of customers in Pakistan.

The sample data of 250 respondents was drawn for this paper. The respondents were the regular visitors to the Islamic banks in Pakistan and were selected through judgmental sampling. Of 250, total 237 responses were included in the final study, after excluding the inappropriate and missing responses. For the final data, EFA, CFA and SEM were used to test the significance of relationships between the IVs (ATT, SBN and HCT) and DV (BI).

Findings from the SEM analysis suggest that ATT, SBN and HCT have positive significant relationships with BI. SBN appeared to be the most influencing factor that influences the behavioral intention to purchase family takaful.

The paper has practical implications for takaful managers and academics. Bank managers can draw marketing communication policy based on the findings of this paper. While for academics, this paper laid a foundation for future studies by integrating Halal certification in TRA as a predictor to the behavioral intention towards selecting family takaful. The empirical nature of this paper will enhance understanding of the Islamic financial market and its customers specifically.

The findings of the paper also hold significance for managers and policy-makers of Islamic financial institutes. It guides to design the marketing strategies to develop the right attitude of customers, emphasize subjective norms and Halal certification when communicating the family takaful products to customers. As such, brand managers of family takaful may leverage the role of belief in developing the right attitude and then linking it to the family takaful brand. The attitude is rooted in the belief, and for family takaful brands, it potentially be useful to allow it a broader space in the brand strategies. Likewise, subjective norms in terms of choosing family takaful comprises the perceived social pressure of customers feel towards purchasing takaful for families. It highlights the role of social contacts and effect of their behavior and choices over customers. The recommendations and positive feedback customers receive from their social contacts can be instrumental in instilling the sale of family takaful. In the context of Halal certification, the findings of this paper call takaful brand managers’ attention to the significant role Shariah compliance plays for potential customers of family takaful.

The findings of the paper also have significance for managers and policy-makers of Islamic financial institutes. The findings of this paper guide them to develop marketing strategies, develop the right attitude of customers, emphasize subjective norms and Halal certification when communicating the family Takaful products to customers.

Family takaful is relatively a new phenomenon that demands empirical evidence for academics and managers. This is one of the early studies that investigates the determinants of purchase of family takaful through extended TRA model. Therefore, this investigation will serve as a cornerstone to the scant knowledge of family takaful in Pakistan and around the globe.

It is widely evident that trust and commitment are important pillars for strengthening the relationship between financial service firms and their customers. However, it has not been explored how the service quality, perceived cost and role of agents are important for financial service firms. To overcome this gap, this study aims to investigate the role of service quality, perceived cost and the role of agents as the commitment–trust factors in the financial insurance service (Takaful) in Malaysia, enhancing customer satisfaction.

The study follows a quantitative design in which primary data was collected using a survey instrument. The measurement instrument was adapted from the previous research, and data were collected from 264 customers of the Takaful financial service organizations in Malaysia. The data were analyzed using variance-based structural equational modeling in Smart-PLS software.

This research has revealed several useful insights that demonstrate a significant impact on service quality, perceived cost and the agents’ role in forging close relationships with their customers. Corporate image has a moderating role in relationships and has significantly impacted takaful insurance companies. The results imply that regardless of the corporate image of the financial service organizations, customers are concerned about the prices and the quality of the agents’ services.

In this study, only the predictors such as service quality, perceived costs and agents’ roles as trust–commitment factors were examined to determine customer satisfaction. Other investigations are highly recommended, such as value co-creation in takaful, takaful customer experience and takaful trust. This study offers insights to takaful insurance companies on how to keep up a positive corporate image, which will boost their trust–commitment factors and ultimately increase customer satisfaction.

By presenting commitment–trust factors and company image in an identifiable framework, the current study has expanded the discussion on takaful financial insurance services. The methodology is developed and rigorously tested to gauge customer satisfaction in takaful financial service organizations’ context.